TREDEGAR

Tredegar is a vibrant town situated on the banks of Sirhowy River in southeast Wales and 156 miles west of London with a population of around 15000. The history of the town found its root back to 18^th century when Tredegar Iron Company was established and appeared on Ordnance Survey map as a part of the Tredegar Estate by Samuel Homfray. Even Richmond, the city of United States named their Iron Company as Tredegar Iron Works in honor of the town. The city is also the birthplace of several famous people in the fields of health, sports, entertainment, education, and politics.

In the era of pre industrialization, the town developed due to the presence of natural resources (Iron, Wood, Coal, and Power) in the Sirhowy Valley. The Iron works were implanted in the Sirhowy Valley by Mr. Kettle in 1750 and then sold to William Barrow and Thomas Atkinson in 1778. They built first small scale coal fired furnace in the area, however, business and coal mining operation failed in 1794. Then, in 1797 Mr. Samuel Homfray along with his two partners leased the land from Tredegar Estate and developed new furnace and Ironworks in the south of the county. They named their company as Tredegar Iron Company in honor of Tredegar Estate in 1800. The fortunes of the town declined as Tredegar Ironworks ceased their production of iron and the company closed their operations and relocated to Newport works. The city was severely affected by three major riots (election riots, anti-Irish and anti-Jewish riots) occurred during the end of 18^th century and beginning of 19^th century.

The new metro station is proposed by Cardiff and South Wales in the city. Tramway connecting Tredegar to Newport Docks was used in early 18^th century and replaced by railways in 1865. The Tredegar railway station was closed in 1963 as a result of a decline in industrial works. Presently, the city is served by Rhymney, Ebbw Vale, and Abergavenny railway stations. The city is also known as ‘The Home of Champions’ for its outstanding musical band and ranked number two in world rankings.